The first was to promote the publication of the first ever Women's Sporting Calendar, profits from which will go to Us Girls, part of the StreetGames charity, which lays on sport for young women in disadvantaged communities across the country.

But the second was to use this band of sisters, who included England captains Charlotte Edwards (cricket), Faye White (football) and Sarah Hunter (rugby union), to offer a show of strength in the wake of the BBC affair.

As the 11-times Paralympic champion Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson observed, after hurrying across from The Other Place to support the cause, the fuss has, ironically, proved invaluable in terms of raising the profile of women in sport.

As she manoeuvres herself smartly up the ramp leading out towards the green, Baroness Grey-Thompson (pictured below left), never remotely mealy-mouthed, is pretty scathing about the general situation facing her female successors in world sport.


"Women's representation in sport is pretty rubbish," she says. "There are very few women who are on boards of directors, or who are head coaches. Funding for women's sport, and profile in the media are both fairly abysmal."

Baroness Grey-Thompson's concluding point is echoed by Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, who attended the event with fellow MP Tracey Crouch.

"The whole incident showed that the profile of women in sport just isn't high enough," says Keeley. "We should never be in the situation where there isn't a woman to vote for in the BBC Sports Personality Award."

She adds that the latest figures to come out of Sport England has highlighted the growing need to educate and inspire women to take up sport.

"The figures showed that the number of men actively participating at least three times a week had gone up by 200,000 to four and a half million, while the figure for women had gone down by 100,000," she says. "In the North-West in particular, the participation figures for women in sport just aren't good enough.

"That's why we need role models like the ones we have gathered here to be given a higher profile so others can take a lead from them."

Crouch, who represents Chatham and Aylesford, also regrets the absence of women on this year's BBC SPOTY shortlist, but has a slightly different take on what might be the best solution.

"I really don't like the idea of positive discrimination," she says. "I think that if the profile of women in sport can be raised, those making the judgements will simply reflect that in their choices.

"I do have some reservations about magazines like Zoo and Nuts being on the panel. Some of the sport they carry is questionable. It's not exactly mainstream sports journalism.

"But rather than cutting publications out of the process I think it might be better to broaden things out by adding others, such as the women's sports publication Sportsister."

Crouch, a keen footballer who also coaches the Meridian under-14 side in the Kent Ladies League, has become resigned to the fact that she is unable to play with male colleagues such as Andy Burnham and Ian Duncan-Smith (a really good player, apparently) in the House of Commons team because it is forbidden by the rules of the Football Association. Now there is an own goal if ever there was one.


Sarah Winckless (pictured centre), the former world champion and Olympic bronze medallist rower who is now, among many other positions, chair of the British Olympic Association's (BOA) Athletes Commission, agrees with Crouch in terms of how the BBC SPOTY selection process might be altered.

"I think the method by which the shortlist is reached needs to be looked at," she says. "I know there are lots of sports journalists who a seriously respectful of women's achievements, but I would query the nature of the sports coverage by magazines like Nuts and Zoo, which both produced all-male short lists."

She believes the calendar – produced by Illustratus Ltd – which contains fulsome information about forthcoming sporting events involving women, will succeed in helping to raise the profile of women in sport.

"There's a place for the Calendar Girls and calendars with rugby players wearing little or nothing," she says. "But this calendar features women, in their clothes, going about their sport."

Winckless had recently taken part in an Us Girls event in Tottenham at which she had taken part in basketball and roller skating.

"There were 50 girls there, and it was absolutely inspirational to see them taking part," Winckless says. "They were stuffing socks into the roller skates because there weren't enough the right size. They were desperate to skate.

"An event like this can change lives. Even to change one life – that's a pretty cool thing to be able to do."

At 26 – and 6ft 7in – Sarah McKay is one of the most experienced of the current British basketball team preparing for London 2012. Brought up in Canada, she was eligible to represent Britain through the fact that both of her parents are English. Her father, Mike, is a former England basketball player.

McKay was ready to respond to any of the calls which Us Girls might have been about to make upon her time in terms of visiting projects or engaging with them through social media.

"I would regard it as an absolute honour," she says, adding that she has already had quite a bit of experience visiting schools and clubs in the Barking area, where she now lives.

"Many of the schools we visit don't even have basketball hoops, so we just have to improvise by working on ball skills and passing. But it is beginning to have some effect. When I go to my local grocery store I sometimes see some of the kids we have visited and they recognise me and talk to me."

Kylie Grimes, who has been playing GB wheelchair rugby since 2008, believes that one of the main factors which holds young women back from playing sport is fear.


Grimes (pictured front centre), who was a showjumper before suffering an accident in 2006, says the move to rugby had been a natural one for her because her family had always been "rugby-mad", adding: "When members of the GB wheelchair rugby team visited the ward it seemed like a good idea for me to give it a try."

But Grimes has found herself in a very obvious minority. "I am the only woman in the team," she says with a grin. "It is a male dominated sport, and I think that is one of the things that puts women off. There are not enough women to form a female British wheelchair rugby team."

She adds that the sport – which involves wheelchair-to-wheelchair contact rather than direct physical confrontation – is growing in popularity, as witnessed by the fact it was the fastest selling event at the 2012 Paralympics in terms of tickets.

Many of those who had come together to support their cause felt 2012, with its likely achievements by female sporting figures in the events which offer them their best chance of an equal profile to male counterparts would certainly be reflected in next year's BBC SPOTY shortlist.

But Baroness Grey-Thompson, ever pragmatic, offers a salutary final word on the subject: "The Olympics and Paralympics are great, but they hide the reality," she says. "It's really hard to keep young women in sport. Eighty per cent of women in this country don't do enough exercise to be really healthy, and that has to change."

The Women's Sporting Calendar is a laudable enterprise. But you sense it will be many calendar years before women's sport is likely to be on a permanently level-playing field with men's sport.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.